Kintsugi for Infrastructure; A Climate Week NYC Morning Forum
Kintsugi, the centuries-old Japanese art of repairing broken objects with gold, holds that fractures are not flaws to hide but histories to honor and that repair, done with intention, produces something stronger and more beautiful than the original. American infrastructure is having its kintsugi moment. The grid (and the workforce) is aging, the demand curve is spiking, the workforce is shifting, and buildings are becoming power plants. The question is not whether our systems will be remade, but whether the seams will show gold.
This invitation-only morning forum brings together utilities, technologists, policymakers, and investors to examine the repair work already underway and what it will take to finish it. Hosted by Blackhorn Ventures and Mitsubishi Electric, a company that has spent a century building the systems that heat, cool, connect, and power the world, this conversation is grounded in infrastructure reality, not aspirational abstraction.
Hosted by Blackhorn Ventures, Mitsubishi Electric and Morrison Foerster
Run of Show:
8:30am Doors open / Coffee & Networking
9:30am Opening Remarks
9:35am Keynote
Seiji Oguro, Executive Officer, Corporate Strategic Planning / Sustainability Innovation Group, Mitsubishi Electric Corp.
9:50am PanelⅠ: Rewiring the Backbone: Grid Modernization, Power Infrastructure & the Data Center Imperative
Sergej Mahnovski, Managing Director, Strategy, Technology, and Innovation, Edison International
Josh Wong, Founder & CEO, ThinkLabs AI
Jasper de Vries, Co-founder & CTO, Lucend
Eric Pelli, Group Vice President, Mitsubishi Electric Power Products
Heerea Rikhraj, Capital Markets Reporter, New Project Media
10:25am Panel II: Comfort Intelligence: Heating, Cooling & the Virtual Power Plant Opportunity
Matthew Johnson, Senior Vice President, Energy Hub
Samir Pendse, Co-founder & CEO, Coral
Mark Kuntz, Chief Operating Office, Mitsubishi Electric US
10:55am Panel III: The Gold in the Seams: Physical AI, the Factory Floor & the Workforce That Runs It
Shawn Fitzgerald, Chief Revenue Officer, Formic
Kim Zou, Founder, Sightline Climate
Masahiro Kaji, President & CEO, Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America
Stacey Weismiller, President & CEO, American Manufacturing Futures Institute
11:30am Close & Continued Networking